China Internet: Highlights from 2026 WAIC & Implications from President Xi‘s Speech

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China Internet: Highlights from 2026 WAIC & Implications from President Xi‘s Speech

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19 Jul 2026 18:58:32 ET │ 9 pages

China Internet

Highlights from 2026 WAIC & Implications from President Xi's Speech

CITI'S TAKE

The 2026 World AI Conference held in Shanghai on July 17 highlighted

China's strategic push towards practical, governable AI. China President Xi

Jinping called for a global, open, human-centered AI governance

framework, announcing the formation of the WAICO and a pledge to Alicia Yap, CFAAC

provide 5,000 AI training opportunities to developing countries over five +852-2501-2773

years. Key highlights from the conference exhibits showcase a market alicia.yap@citi.com

shift from models to task-oriented AI agents. Key highlights included

Baidu's general-purpose agent, DuMate; Kingsoft's document-focused

WPS Lingxi; Tencent's WorkBuddy, and Alibaba's Meoo Team. The

collective focus underscored that China is working on embedding AI into

tangible applications and physical systems, progressing from digital

generation to real-world execution.

What's new? During his speech (published by Ministry of Foreign Affairs) at World AI

Conference held in Shanghai on July 17th, China President Xi Jinping highlighted that

China believes all countries should uphold a people-centered, upward, and for-the-

good philosophy, making AI an important driving force for promoting common

prosperity and safeguarding common security, and work together to build a fair and

reasonable global AI governance system.

President Xi detailed four key points: 1) Embracing open, win-win cooperation in AI

is essential for driving innovation, transforming industries, and accelerating global

economic growth. 2) It is crucial to proactively manage the risks of AI through